METRO CORNER By ERIK ESPINA Erik Espina Fundamental attributes of a state are people, territory, government, and sovereignty or independence.  When an established country-state consensually joins other independent states, to form a union, a confederation of various republics, similar to the United States of America (states with respective constitutions and celebrating their own independence days, e.g., North Carolina – April 12, 1776; Hawaii – Nov. 28, 1843; Texas – March 2, 1836, etc.), that is federalism, e.g., 50 states, 50 republics, However, when a single state, one republic, with an established history and constitution, is driven to internally federalize, it is in effect, the reverse of federalism. What more for a small country. This will be a perilous slide, weakening the sinews of nationalist unity towards territorial diminution, perhaps eventual balkanization. More so, for the Philippines, distinguished by island ethnicities, language, and regional loyalties. We were for many centuries, from 1521 to the 1900s, confronted and provoked over the question of national identity. We wrestled with our own skins manipulated by late foreign and even current neo-colonials for advantage in a “divide and conquer,” pitting “natives” against one another to subjugate other tribes and islands. 18th century “Old Kingdom Colonialism” and 19th Century “European Centralism,” catalogued an apology for Western empire building and imperialism. Former colonials now advocate and conveniently push for “multi-culturalism and self-determination” as modern-day movements and solutions for former and troubled territories. Experimentation with federalism under such neo-colonial thinking, will deconstruct our republic. Unravel surviving national identity, weaken the solidarity in the archipelago as established by our “founding fathers.” We will again be reverting to island/regional tribes vulnerable to geo-political influences and territorial incursions by alien interests.